The best mini-games within games

Games Video Games
1

This is something I talk about constantly on twitter and something I always want more discussion about. If video games are going to put mini-games in them, they should be good. Like, entertaining, well-designed, cool shit. The big two for me are fishing minis and cooking minis. Lemme preface: I love cooking, I do it for a living, only 2-3 games ever have made a good cooking mini-game. MMOs are the worst at this. Same with Fishing.

TL:dr, So please, tell me what your favorite or what the best made mini-games in video games are.

for me

Fishing: Dark Cloud 2, Breath of Fire 3
Cooking: Suikoden 2
General fun crafting: The Star Ocean series where sometimes you accidentally cook a pile of shit.

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2

I put way too many hours into Demon Tower in NitW.

9 Likes
3

The mini games in the original Pokemon Stadium. I probably spent more time in there than in the main part of the game.

6 Likes
4

Triple Triad is still so so good and I would play a standalone of it a la Gwent in a heartbeat.

5

Haha. I started reading this and immediately this popped into my head. Demon Tower was an incredible game within a game. I spent many hours getting to the end of it. Loved it.

2 Likes
6

shit I must have had a stroke to forget about triple triad AKA the only good card game before Gwent came along.

2 Likes
7

Chao Garden, aka the only justifiable reason to play Sonic Adventure 2.

8 Likes
8

Dark Cloud 2 has fantastic fishing not only for the minigame itself, but everything you can do with the fish afterwards, cooking, racing, contests. It’s awesome

That said I also love Spheda in there, even at its most frustrating.

Triple Triad is easy to understand and I love me some card games too

1 Like
9

One thing I’ll say is that I almost liked Tetra Master in FF9 more than the rest of the game, which is saying a lot for me. I don’t know if it would hold up today after I’ve played a ton of board games and mobile games, but at the time, I sunk hours and days and weeks into optimizing my build.

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10

Ohhhhh this is good.

11

Holy shit how do you love Spheda are you a living saint. That game is impossible to love and/or play.

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12

It’s frustrating and infuriating at times, but I like golf games… so long as they’re packed as a minigame
And the rewards are good so I tried to pick up on it
Also Chocobo Hot and Cold!! How could I forget?

1 Like
13

It’s been a while since I’ve played GW2, but I ADORED super adventure box.

2 Likes
14

Bioshock’s Hacking mini-game. IT WAS FANTASTIC AND ANYONE THAT SAYS OTHERWISE IS WRONG AND ALSO A CRIMINAL

6 Likes
15

It’s… Pipe Dream

Then again plenty of good minigames are already made ones they stick in as a bonus

16

Triple Triad is the best, and I remember really liking Blitzball when I first played FFX, even though I’m sure if I tried to play it again I’d hate it. Luckily, Inazuma Eleven took all the best parts of Blitzball and made an awesome game out of them.

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17

Chocobo breeding and racing in FF7.

Also the snowboarding and car chase minigame at the golden saucer in FF7 were insanely addicting.

18

I loved Tetra Master until it started to feel really unbalanced in the late game. I think TT holds up as a Good Game more than TM, but I still felt that itch for a while.

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19

Also, my recent obsession has been to play the hacking game at every single save terminal I stop at in Nier: Automata.

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20

Oh man, I don’t know about best, or even good, but that “war” style card game in Xenogears, but you have to run between your piles to play the cards. Brutal.

1 Like